Active Users:567 Time:25/11/2024 05:04:59 AM
Six plus the bonus ironclad Send a noteboard - 01/04/2012 06:26:36 PM

1. Star Trek is famous for episodes about Big Dumb Objects, but in this early Motion Picture the crew encounters a massive BDO that is strangely familiar. Name that BDO.

I can't remember the old films, they were so boring, so no idea.

2. Sci-Fi writer Larry Niven is perhaps best known for this BDO, which is the focus of multiple books which keep the characters running around the world in rings.

never heard.

3. Another eponymous BDO, this book by Michael Crichton was later turned into a movie starring Samuel L. Jackson as a Dr. Harry Adama, a Mathematician.

Sphere.

4. Yet another Eponymous BDO, these large megastructures and superweapons are at the center of a series of popular first person shooters, the first of which came out on X-Box in 2001.

Halo

5. Also a superweapon and definitely big, as big as a moon, this object might not qualify as a BDO since there is no doubt at all who made it and what it’s meant to do, though it only got to serve that function once due to a slight design flaw in a small thermal exhaust port.

Death Star

6. This all-black BDO appears in multiple books and films, and is actually several BDOs of various size but identical shape. Although a copy of it is found on the moon, its first known and perhaps most memorable appearance is surrounded by primitive hominids who suddenly learn how to use tools. Another version is later found around Jupiter… or maybe Saturn… accounts vary, possibly because of the rather severe computer problems experienced by the crew sent out to investigate.

The Monolith

7. This eponymous planet, actually a living world, feature’s at the center of a classic sci-fi novel by Stanisław Lem which has been turned into a film three times, most recently in 2002 starring George Clooney.

Solaris

8. Like many books set after some apocalypse ends a bygone golden age of legends, this series features a number of large and often mysterious relics, although the origin and purpose of many are later revealed. Examples includes a white bridge made out of an unknown but impossibly strong but fragile looking white glass, a half buried but very large statue of a man holding a crystal ball, and a set of glass columns that would probably be very popular with genologists. What is the name of this book series?

No idea

9. This BDO, like a lot of our others, appears in a movie named after it, filmed in 1997. In this sci-fi horror film the characters travel from room to room trying to avoid being killed, eventually being helped somewhat in this goal by Kazan, an autistic savant with a skill at rapid calculation. Interestingly all of characters are named after famous prisons, which is rather appropriate since the characters spend most of their time stuck in a box.

Cube

10. This 1976 novel by Terry Pratchett of Discworld fame features a series of BDO’s made by an unknown group who presumably would be very much in their element the day this quiz was written. The book’s title is very similar to a Pink Floyd album that slightly predates it, and is also the place the ancient builders of the BDO are said to have gone, part of a riddle around which most of the plot revolves. What is the name of this Book?

No idea

Bonus Question: This eponymous ship is featured in a 1997 sci-fi horror film when it vanishes only to reappear in a decaying orbit around Neptune. Designed to allow Faster than Light travel, it appears to instead have opened up a Gateway to Hell. Your mileage may very on how good the film was, many liking it and many other felt it was so bad they'd rather gouge their own eyes out than re-watch it, something more than one of the characters in the film chose to do. What is the name of this ship and movie?

Event Horizon

*MySmiley*

You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.
Reply to message
Test Your Geekdom, Vol VI: Big Dumb Objects - 01/04/2012 03:37:47 PM 1031 Views
Answers - 01/04/2012 03:44:40 PM 740 Views
I got six. *NM* - 01/04/2012 04:30:44 PM 525 Views
Six plus the bonus - 01/04/2012 06:26:36 PM 650 Views
I got seven. I didn't know 6, 9, or 10. *NM* - 01/04/2012 09:58:22 PM 313 Views
10 out of 11 - 02/04/2012 05:31:35 AM 1433 Views
5; better than I expected. - 05/04/2012 05:35:07 PM 785 Views

Reply to Message